Category Archives: culture

How are you today? Welcome to this week’s Weekend Coffee Share! How has your week been?

If we were having coffee today, we’d have met up early to drive to Essen together. We’d have got coffee on the way and gone in my car while listening to Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book on the car stereo. This particular version is narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi and features the voice of Andrew Scott as Jack Frost. It’s a really good production!

Why are we going to Essen, you might wonder. Today I’m part of a guided tour around UNESCO World Heritage Site and former coal mining complex Zeche Zollverein. The tour is for hobby photographers and gives access to some places that are not open to the general public. The industrial complex covers an area of 100ha.

Well, I’m close to finishing my last uni courses before I can start my M.A. thesis, and I can’t decide on a proper research question.

If you’ve read this blog before, you probably know that I am studying for my Master of Arts in Cross-Cultural Communication by distance learning. Unfortunately, that means that I do not know my course-mates and have nobody at uni to actually talk about thesis ideas.

And Then There Were None is arguably the very best story the Grande Dame of Mystery Fiction, Agatha Christie, has ever written.

Originally published under the title Ten Little Niggers (or Ten Little Indians – back then these terms were not yet considered offensive), the story is about ten seemingly unrelated people who are lured to a remote island under false pretenses. It soon becomes apparent that there has to be a murderer among the group as one after the other is killed.

This story is THE whodunnit classic. Full of plot twists and red herrings, And Then There Were None stays gripping to the very last page, just as the protagonists stay classy and reserved in true British fashion. Even as the number of suspects decreases, readers are left wondering who the killer is and what their motives are.

How are you? Come on in for a quick cuppa in today’s Weekend Coffee Share!

If we were having coffee today, I’d preface this by saying I’m essentially locked in my flat to avoid distraction for the next two weeks as I have deadlines looming and need to get stuff done.

I’d also tell you that my Sherlock fanfic The Bravery of the Soldier is currently in 22nd Place in the Inkitt Fandom Writing Contest!! It’s the first contest I’ve entered as a writer, and to be 22nd out of more than 1,000 entries is making me all kinds of giddy.

Voting ends on October 21, so if you haven’t already, please head over to Inkitt via this link, click on the heart to like my story and tell others to do the same! 39 of you already did, and I know that I will not get the 200+ votes needed to reach the top, but Top 15 would be awesome!

Welcome to this week’s Weekend Coffee Share! How are you? What have you been up to this week? Shall we move through to the backyard and enjoy our cuppa in the glorious autumn sunshine? It’s nice and warm in the sun, the skies are blue and cloudless and the leaves are starting to turn yellow and red. It’s gorgeous out! It’s the sort of weather that really makes me want to experience a New England Indian Summer sometime.